Why is there a decrease in the area of water over the 17 year span?
A. There is a considerable decrease in the water land cover class largely because 1995 and 2002 were dry years. Drought conditions result in lower water levels in rivers, streams and waterbodies and increases in exposed shorelines. Also, as shallow waterbodies become drier, they tend to appear more like wetlands on satellite images. The net result is that the area of land cover for water decreases while the area of wetlands and barren lands increases. Such shifts in land cover are directly attributable to short-term climatic changes and typically are not permanent.
